A COMPARISON OF IBAD FILMS FOR WEAR AND CORROSION PROTECTION WITH OTHER PVD COATINGS

Ion beam assisted deposition is presently introduced into fabrication processes in industry. Now the question arises which are the advantages and disadvantages of IBAD in comparison with other PVD-techniques and where its application potential is. In this paper results of comparative studies of IBAD and methods such as sputtering and ion plating are discussed. The subjects are medium energy ion beam assisted deposition and films for wear and corrosion protection. As a general result it turns out that IBAD films show superior performance when low process temperatures are required, as it is the case for special heat treated steels and aluminium alloys. In these cases, both elemental IBAD coatings such as Al and compound coatings such as TiN are able to offer a better protection against corrosion, partially also wear, than most of the other PVD techniques. The reasons for this observation are higher structural density and adhesion of the IBAD films. The required film growth conditions, mainly energy input, are provided by highly energetic ions while the bulk of the substrate can essentially be kept at low temperature.